best bargain/find that you passed on or missed out on?  

bargain
bargain that is. although those bear gains are great too.

300 eames stacking side chairs....
some guy was hired by IBM to take them to the dump, but instead brought them to a flea market to sell at $5. each and even cheaper by the dozen. they were stacking side chairs with vynal seats in crazy bright 60's/70's colors. the shear scale overwhelmed me. so i walked on for awhile, then i thought i'd buy about 12 of them. but when i returned a japanese dealer had bought them for all $2.50 each..........
my favorite ones were fuscia colored.

It still hurts
I got a very nice rosewood table and six chairs at auction for $350 but the chairs (Kai Christensen) were a design that tends to get wobbly, so I decided to look for sturdier ones.
The same auction house had a set of 8 N.O. Møller dining chairs in rosewood about a year later. I went up to around $900 on them. An absentee bidder got them for $1000 and that was his top bid. I felt like crying. I would have gone higher but hubby put the breaks on because of some pending payment for something else that ended up getting postponed for awhile. Agh!
THEN---to add insult to injury---I heard about a set of six of the same chairs that a local dealer had. She wanted $2400 for them. The kicker was that she got them from a different local dealer who had no idea what they were and sold them for $50 apiece!! I knew where her shop was but didn't particularly like her so I never went in her shop. Gah!!!
And SHE only paid a DOLLAR EACH for them at some country auction around here. The cord seats all needed redoing which maybe be partly why they sold for cheap. I can weave seats like that though---wouldn't have stopped me for even a second.
I finally gave up waiting for another bargain like the above and got six chairs on ebay for $1500 and haven't regretted it for a moment.

some missed opportunities
Twice at Salvation Army:
Set of 6 chairs for $14 each that reminded me of Edward Wormley for Dunbar chairs, but when I flipped them over and saw no label, I just assumed them to be repros and passed. Two months later I saw the exact same set at David Rago's ID'd as Michael Taylor for Baker (hammer I think was $3500).
Also 2 Franco Albini Knoll lounge chairs, $2.50 each and I still passed. I had no idea what they were when I saw them, but I liked them so much I remembered them when I saw them in the Knoll book 2 years later.
Then most painfully, a quantity of 80-100 orange Eames armshells from a local hospital for $5 each. After 2 months of negotiating with their used furniture broker for the lot, I finalized a deal. But when the pick-up day finally came, the hospital staff assumed I only wanted the good stuff (80's Steelcase) and put the armshells in the trash compactor, crunching them all. True story, I saw the mangled aftermath and cried.

Hmmm, I don't really deal wit...
Hmmm, I don't really deal with regrets but still ...
Man, those are some heartbreaking stories. Let's see. I collect vintage textiles by Verner Panton, Alexander Girard etc. Once I missed out on a huge beautiful Albatrossi curtain designed by Maija Isola for Marimekko. It was on eBay. I though it was end up costing around $300 so I just went to bed. Though the final bid was $5.
Also, one time when I had just started collecting a man phoned me saying he had a lot of green Verner Panton fabric for sale at a low price. Though I turned him down without even hearing the price as I didn't like the colour green at that time. DOH!
About two weeks ago I saw an ad where a family not far from where I live gave away free vintage and rare furniture (chairs, tables etc.) by Nanna Ditzel. I was no. 2 to call them but surely it was too late. I've also had the chance to buy a very early Tounge chair by Arne Jacobsen in teak. The price was $500 but still, I should have bought it.

eames.. of course
Last night I saw a local junk shop had a plycraft lounge in the window - great condition. I ran in this morning and was told it had been sold....for 150$ eek.
Few months ago I ran into an older gentleman who was trying to unload some stacking shell chairs. I was in a local Mod shop and overheard the owner telling this guy that they were just about worthless. I interrupted to ask him the colors and he said he lived right around the corner. On the walk to his house he told me that his sister had nabbed the chairs from the auditorium at her old job - at MoMA in NY!! Talk about a great lineage!
The chairs were indeed stackers, but with the earlier narrow shockmounts, all in good condition. Like a fool I left my number instead of making him an offer on the spot. havent heard from him since. 🙁

Crushed Orange Shells
OMG!... I just re-read that post and I think I might cry just hearing about it!

Didn?t know what I missed out for years.................
The very first thing I missed out on...Whilst studying at college, me and my friends would have our lunch next door to a second hand furniture shop?One day on the way to lunch, I?ve spotted a set of six chairs outside the shop. I had no idea what they were or who they were made by. I asked the owner about them?he told me he had picked them up from the EMI office down the road that morning and he want £500 for the set. You could tell the chairs had some age as they where a bit battered round the edges? I must have spent 20 minutes looking at all the chairs. The owner knew I was a window shopper?as I never brought anything, ?take them for £400? trying to get rid of me. I?ve called my brother and told him about the chairs?I told him the where a bit like the x chair (I didn?t know the name of the Barcelona chair), but different, round at the front with flat leather. My brother told me £400 was way too much for second hand chairs?I didn?t buy the chairs and straight away felt I had missed out..
I got into furniture years later?.I spotted the chairs in a book..I had the opportunity to buy six PK20 chairs most likely made by EKC for £400! 10 years later, I still sometimes remind my brother of my missed opportunity??.

Most recent thing I have missed out on?.
A few weeks back I found a nice rosewood coffee table by Poul Cadovious listed on ebay. It was incorrectly listed so, I thought not many ppl will find it?.and I might be able to pick up a bargain..
I had my window open waiting for the clock to show 7 seconds?.I was really tired that day and must of closed my eyes?I have woken up looked at my laptop?.I?ve missed the auction by three minutes?Table finished for £6..
Not one to really cry about?for the price though a true bargain?

all you ebay shoppers..
...you should use online sniping programs so that you can bid at the last second without having to be at your computer. They are especially helpful to European bidders who would have to get up at 3 a.m. to bid on things that end at normal evening hours in the U.S.
I have been using auctionstealer.com for years and have been very pleased with it. NO security problems whatsoever. They allow a few free bids per week, too.

Eww.. i HATE snip bidding
almost as much as I hate ebay. I'm a big fan of deals...its not how much you pay for something.. its how much you SAVE! lol.

I agree
It's about how much you save, not how much you pay. That's why I bid in the final seconds. I don't want anyone to have time to see my bid and bid again, pushing my bid higher.
Auctions are about getting things at the lowest price possible and a bid is a bid, no matter when it is entered. You can bid to your best advantage or you can not bid to your best advantage.
Ebay isn't perfect but it does give you a chance to buy things that you'll rarely, if ever, find locally. And if you know how to optimize your chances of winning, you can do quite well and have fun, too.